Over the past three years, Sudanese militias, aided by the government, have caused the deaths of up to 400,000 African Muslims in the Darfur region in western Sudan. They sent another 2.5 million fleeing to refugee camps. The rally's organizers, a broad umbrella of religious and human rights groups, hope a huge turnout will galvanize the White House to work harder to stop the slaughter.

After all, President Bush pledged in February to push for a U.N. (not U.S.) peacekeeping force, helped with logistics by NATO. This would replace an inadequate force that has been unable to protect civilians in Darfur.

Although the Sunday rally will be large, it appears the numbers won't be sufficient to make a truly powerful statement -- unless more demonstrators travel to Washington at the last minute.

Rubin's column was syndicated. The version that was published by the Baltimore Sun today contained this reference to Rwanda:

After the Rwandan slaughter of 800,000 in 1994, there seemed to be strong public sentiment against permitting another such mass killing.